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I've played since FM07 and never left a club without making an alternative save. Usually I go back to the original pretty quickly. I think FM08 was the only time I made the switch. It's an area I'm definitely missing out on and I'd love to do but I find it so hard watching an AI manager come in and completely destroy everything that I built.

So for one man club long term saves:

Use only HG academy players for a challenging long term save.
If that's too difficult pick a date that you need to implement it, eg. Squad needs to be all academy players by 2020 so at least you get a few intakes.

Or,
Only buy players of the clubs nationality. German club = players born in Germany or at least declared for Germany. I use this whenever I play in Germany as the youth is outstanding. You can relax the rule to suit. For instance in my BVB save in FM12 I capped the rule at at least 80% of players being German. Meaning I could get the odd random player in. Same with staff.
In FM13 I changed it even more with 70% being German and the rest can only be from one of Germany's neighbours.

You start in the German 3rd Division but you've got the financial backing of Red Bull, great facilities and a big stadium. Make the right moves and you can be challenging Bayern and Dortmund in just a few years time.

Look for a team with a better than average stadium capacity for its current league level, but which isn't carrying a lot of debt. That means it's a team that is ready to return to greatness, or at least climb back to where they should be. That way you won't hit against the ceiling of finding yourself with a stadium that is too small and a board that won't expand.

I got a couple of good seasons out of Luton Town, starting off in the Skrill Premier, but easy enough to bring up to Sky League 1. Stupid owner kept forcing me to play direct soccer and was too cheap to relay the terrible pitch, but otherwise a tolerable save start.

Look for a team with a better than average stadium capacity for its current league level, but which isn't carrying a lot of debt. That means it's a team that is ready to return to greatness, or at least climb back to where they should be. That way you won't hit against the ceiling of finding yourself with a stadium that is too small and a board that won't expand.

I did this with my first-ever save (FM13), and it worked out beautifully. It's a great way for a new player like me to learn the game. It's also probably fun for experienced players, but the challenge level was very low and I didn't get frustrated even though, in hindsight, my tactics were crap and I should have lost more. I chose a just-relegated team in the 2nd Division in Brazil with no debt and financially stable. They had a 42K seat stadium and were predicted to finish 2nd. It turns out the team was excellent and after promotion and virtually no additions, I placed fifth in the First Division. Having money for a large squad helped, especially with all of the games played in Brazil (80+ if you go far in the cups). I'm not sure how well I would have managed a tougher situation my first time out.

If I were to start a save like this again, I'd handicap myself with something like "No players outside the continent" or "Never buy players over 18 years old." Otheriwse I think it would be too easy to do well. Maybe not in the absolute top European countries, but it's easy to dominate with money in places like Brazil.

Some other ideas for a "challenge" save:
- Reject all other management offers until you win a trophy at each club. Conversely, accept every interview/offer, no matter how ludicrous. Managing Barcelona and Wigan offer you a job? Have to take it!
- No loans, in or out. (Maybe relax it the first season only if the squad is a mess.)
- Holiday for 20 or so years to clear out any current players, so there is no bias or foreknowledge.
- Try to build a team that does something exceedingly well, regardless of other factors. For example, there is a Steam achievement for not conceding in 30 straight games (Immovable Object), so you could build a team to do just that. Same thing goes for attack - maybe build a team to average 3+ goals a game in a top division and not care about how many you concede.
- Only manage financially unstable clubs. Once they're stable, move on.

I'm currently doing a GENOA save and i love it. It's so much fun trying to break that top tier of italian football. you have a good core of youth and some good experience, the facilities are good and u have room to grow. Give it a try its fantastic!

I am sure there are plenty of teams that fall into the category of difficult and I am sure there are many teams more difficult than this one, but this is what I have done every season since the 2009 game (previous to that I always just played as Liverpool). My challenge every season is to start as Accrington Stanley and take them to the top. Being such a small club with very little resources and small stadium is quite the challenge, the low team rep also makes it hard to get good loans etc. It is a great long term save for me. Then when I have finally lifted my first Champions Cup I can (in my imagination) think back and laugh about the old commercial... "Accrington Stanley, who are they?"... Exactly!

Get a couple of mates around, all pick a similar level team in the same league and let battle commence. I've been doing this ever since 2000 and we've played various different leagues (England (from Prem down to L2), Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Scotland, even a World League) and these games have been so much more enjoyable than my single-player games.

I second this.
Only way i ever play, no need to think which team you want.
Starting with sunday league reputation, you will be happy to be employed in the first place

I agree with this ...
I start off with Evo Stik Division 1, then I edit out 5 of the teams and put in teams that represent all the local villages close to where I live. I manage my village team and just carry on and see how far I can get them.

My favourite new save I call 'The Job Whore'. Start unemployed with multiple leagues, and dual nationality for 2 of the leagues. Rule is simple - you have to accept ANY job you get offered. Has taken me on some brilliant journeys around Europe!

The Andorra challenge is what I'm doing at the moment (same as the San Marino challenge, but in Andorra) and it's a lot of fun so far. Managing in Austria was one of my favourite recent saves. Managed to get Austria Vienna from a sleeping giant to a Europa League win and a champs league semi final. The Celtic '67 challenge is fun though (basically only signing players from your city/surroundings or through the youth academy, so for example Liverpool could only sign players from Merseyside or Lancashire at a push)

Load the smallest (processing and data-wise) league, then load all players from every nation. You now have an international-only game where you can manage as any nation.

Chances are that'll be too much and the game will process too slow, so you could just uploads certain types of players, and also you won't need to uploads players from the bigger nations (England, Brazil, Germany etc. as they're playable with real players and a pool even without the players loaded.

Start as the manager of a mid-to-top side. Build a side that is entirely home grown or atleast from the same nation as your club. Win the Champions League (or its equivalent) with this side.
As an additional challenge, take over as national team manager, choose the same players from your club. Qualify and win both Euros (or its equivalent) and the World Cup.